Volunteers Raise the Roof at Duluth Farmer's Market
Posted at: 09/29/2012 6:26 PM
| Updated at: 09/29/2012 11:26 PM
By: Paige Calhoun
Shovels and pitch forks could be heard scraping away the old roof at the Duluth Farmer's Market Saturday. A project market staff said was long overdue.
"It's old enough so that it's worn out and leaking," Farmer's Market Board Member Bob Olen said.
Over the years they've raised $6,000 to replace it. That's enough to cover materials, but not a contractor. So the business that sells homegrown products turned to homegrown labor, "We decided to do it ourselves with help from the community," Olen said.
Dozens of vendors, community members, and UMD students rolled up their sleeves and sacrificed their lazy Saturdays to pitch in,"I like to do what I can to support all of the local agriculture and local food and local business and if that means putting in a couple hours of work on the weekend, then I'll do it," UMD student Sheamus Johnson said. He even recruited a few of his friends for the job.
"It's always good to help out your community. We live just down the neighborhood."
"It's good to be a young adult and a proactive member of the community as well."
Once they finish taking off the old shingles, they'll be ready to put on the new roof. Folks there were excited about what that means for the future of the farmer's market.
"Just building a relationship with the people that grow the food and produce the food. That's a really cool thing. It's a personal experience then, with your food," vendor Tawny Smith-Savage said.
"We hope it continues to grow and we continue to have support from the community and local patrons," Olen said.
And volunteers can go home with a sense of pride knowing they helped the farmer's market raise the roof, "We'll get to see this every time we drive by, every time we come to the market. Have our own mark on the city of Duluth."
Volunteers started working at noon on Saturday and hope to wrap up the project by sunset on Sunday.
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